What's Working Wednesday: Homemade Kettle Korn

Do you love Kettle Korn? Yummy, sweet, salty goodness that you can only get once a year at a fair or festival after paying an arm and a leg. Or, maybe you can have it more often than that and without all that cost...

We love popcorn. Glenn and I both grew up in families in which popcorn was Sunday night's supper so that is a tradition that we've continued in our own family. In the early years of our marriage we had an air popper then a Stir Crazy popcorn popper until it broke and we went back to the air popper. When we were living with Brian and Kristina back in those crazy months in the summer of 2008 Kristina taught me the best way to make popcorn - in a regular pot. I remember Linda Zona making it that way for us when we would stop in for a visit but I really didn't know how she did it.

It's super easy but it does take some trial and error based on your pot of choice and your stove. All you do it throw some oil in a pot along with 3 popcorn kernels. Put the lid on the pot, put the pot on the burner and listen for the popping. When the three kernels have popped pour the rest of the unpopped popcorn in the pot (I'd start with about a 1/2 cup, you can adjust after you see how that does) and put it back on the heat shaking occasionally until the popping stops. Pour it into a bowl and put whatever toppings you want on it - yummy!

We usually eat a few bowls of regular popcorn and when everyone has almost had enough I go into the kitchen and make a batch of Kettle Korn "for dessert." I often bring Kettle Korn with me to parties or serve it when people come over and I am always asked for the recipe so... here it is:

Homemade Kettle Korn!

Kettle Korn
Ingredients:
oil
1/2C popcorn kernels (or more or less depending on your pot size)
1/4C sugar (or more or less depending on how sweet you like it - I usually don't fill my 1/4C all the way)
salt to taste

Method:
1. Put 3 un-popped kernels and some oil in your pot (I don't measure this. Maybe 2T ??)
2. Cover and heat it at med-high shaking a few times until the kernels pop
3. Put the rest of the popcorn kernels in the pot and pour the sugar over them and put the lid back on.
4. Shake regularly until it stops popping. (The shaking in making Kettle Korn is more critical than the shaking when making regular popcorn because you don't want the sugar to burn!)
5. Pour out into a bowl, sprinkle with salt then wait a little bit before digging in because that sugar on the popcorn is HOT!
6. Enjoy your Kettle Korn for WAY CHEAPER than at the fair.

1/2 C popcorn and the "secret ingredient" - 1/4C sugar!

I popped a pot of kettle korn shortly before posting so I could have a picture. My kids were super excited. (Insert cute picture of kids eating it that I totally forgot to take!) Kettle Korn doesn't happen everyday but popcorn does happen quite regularly around here. It is a semi-healthy, pretty cheap snack to feed the starving masses of kids that hang out around my house on a regular basis.

WARNING: Once you start making this you won't be able to stop. I've heard this from many people I've given this recipe too!